


What You Do Today

by DaughterOfKings



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Time Skips, Timequake, War, dousy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:34:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25902901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaughterOfKings/pseuds/DaughterOfKings
Summary: "Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today. It's been that way all this year. It's been that way so many times. All of war is that way.” -Ernest HemingwayThe choices Daniel Sousa makes after being pulled out of time. Spoilers through the finale.
Relationships: Skye | Daisy Johnson/Daniel Sousa
Comments: 12
Kudos: 149





	What You Do Today

**Author's Note:**

> 1) Hi, I barely write in this fandom, but this ship ate my brain, so here I am. 
> 
> 2) Thanks, as always, to [SkylandMountain1013](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkylandMountain1013/pseuds/SkylandMountain1013) for the encouragement.

In Belgium, when it got really bad, Daniel stopped thinking about whether or not he would make it out of the forest alive, and focused on getting from one sunrise to the next. He tries to do the same thing after being jerked through time, but it’s tough to get his bearings when the situation keeps changing, and there are some things he just has to force himself not to think about. Things he can’t come to terms with so quickly.

The team’s worried for him, they don’t hide it well, but they also don’t treat him like he’s going to break. They don’t doubt his capability. 

They hardly even look at his cane.

It helps, at first.

* * *

He watches Agent Simmons monitor the chamber that's supposed to heal Agent Johnson’s injuries, and he knows he owes her an apology, but he can’t think straight enough to get the words out. He got his bell rung when Nathaniel Malick lost control, and his leg is aching, and Daisy is so still and so pale that he’s scared he didn’t do enough even though he got her home, and-

Agent Shaw says they’re about to jump again.

Agent Simmons looks at him, and there’s no anger there, only sympathy. “Last chance if you-”

Daniel takes a breath and shakes his head. “I’m where I need to be,” he tells her, and fixes his gaze on Daisy’s closed eyes. 

When they open, he’ll figure out what to do next.

* * *

When Daniel takes the first steady, pain-free step he’s taken since he was twenty-six, his breath rushes out of him in something that’s almost a sob. He’d accepted never being able to walk properly again, and, for a moment, all he can do is stare at Simmons in shock. She looks pleased, of course, that the prosthetic works, but she doesn’t understand just how much she’s given him. 

She even says, “It’s nothing, Agent Sousa” when he attempts to thank her. 

It takes him a few more steps before he stops worrying that his knee will buckle at any moment. Then he tries jumping, carefully, barely off the balls of his feet. Then a bit higher. 

He catches Daisy watching him out of the corner of his eye, and she’s smiling. After everything she’s been through, he’s making her smile.

He thinks maybe he can keep doing that.

* * *

Enoch dies. Or deactivates. 

Daniel doesn’t know what word to use, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that he’s gone, and his sacrifice should be honored before Simmons does... Well. He doesn’t really understand what Simmons is going to do with the remains, but he thinks they ought to be laid out properly first so that the team can say goodbye. The sheets he finds in storage aren’t much, but there were a lot of guys who didn’t even get that during his first war, so they’ll do.

Daisy grabs his arm after he covers Enoch’s face. She doesn’t look at him, but her fingers tighten once, quickly, before she releases him, and he thinks it means she’s grateful. 

* * *

The hunters breach the lighthouse.

Daniel swallows down the familiar, bitter taste of adrenaline and prepares to fight. It’s not supposed to come to that, not if the rest of the team succeeds, but it’s what he’s done so many times before- done and survived- and he tells himself he can manage once more if he has to.

He slides the safety off his gun and aims towards the doors with steady hands. 

* * *

He knows Daisy is alive before he sees her, but that doesn’t stop him from breaking into a run when the zephyr lands. She’s in rough shape, leaning heavily against Agent Coulson, who transfers her weight to him with a look that’s more loaded than any of the director’s threats had been. 

“I’ve got her, sir,” Daniel says, tightening his grip on her waist. 

Coulson gives him a nod. “Good man.”

* * *

Daisy gets up early the morning after they win the war. Daniel finds her at the water’s edge with two mugs of coffee, like she knew he’d be coming. He sits beside her and spends a moment taking in the sunrise, the peace.

“So,” he says, when it becomes apparent she’s not going to speak first. “What’s next?” 

“I… need to stay with my sister,” she blurts out, and then she takes his hands the way he did in the other timeline when he was about to say goodbye. 

Daniel wraps his fingers around hers before she can say anything further and says, “Okay. So where are we gonna take her?”

And Daisy smiles.


End file.
